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Old 07-18-2017, 03:45 AM   #1
Dzamija
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Default Stacking separate sets of effects on a single track, awesome feature!

I just figured out how to do this and I have to say that I'm baffled how Reaper isn't like the only DAW on the market at this point, because it has a feature for just about anything you can imagine.

Apparently, you can use Reaper's built-in routing capability to process a dry signal with two (or more) completely different sets of plugins, on a single track.

All you have to do is make sure that the effects are receiving the dry signal instead of the signal processed by the previous effect, and then you can use for example your fifth effect to process the signal as if there were no plugins on the track before it.

I found this to be incredibly useful when creating a distorted bass guitar track, and I'll demonstrate how I did this in the example below.

I primarily use two effects when distorting bass, the fantastic JS plugin Bass Professor MK2 (this thing kicks serious ass on bass btw, you can find it in ReaPack) for the low end, and FabFilter Saturn (a multiband saturation plugin) for distorting the high end.

The thing is that I really don't like how these plugins work together, they just don't mix, so in the past I had to create separate tracks and blend them together to get the desired sound. With this trick, now I can do this on one track, and I really like to have a single track per instrument whenever it is possible.

First, you take your first effect, click on the routing button (the one next to "Param) and make sure that it is sending the input signal to inputs 3 and 4 ONLY (see pic below).



Then, take your second effect (for simplicity's sake I'm working with only 2 effects here but you can do it with as many as you wish), and using the same method, make sure that it is sending the signal to inputs 1 and 2 only.



Finally, you should add a third, transparent plugin (here I used ReaEQ but you can use anything that doesn't change your sound by default) and make sure that it is sending its inputs (the previous effects' outputs) from channels 1, 2, 3 and 4 to its set of outputs, 1 and 2.



This way, the output of the track will have the first effect on channels 3 and 4, the second effect on channels 1 and 2, they will all be audible but the signals will not mix, they will be independent. It's like having two tracks in one, and though it might seem simpler to just use two tracks, I find that it creates less work for me later on and I'm really thrilled that I discovered how to finally do this, so I don't have to clutter up my project with additional, unnecessary tracks. Hope this helps!

P.S. I originally wanted to post this to the Tips & Tricks thread, but since it's rather lengthy I figured that I'd just post it here. If that's not okay, feel free to delete this thread and I'll happily move the post into the sticky, I just felt that this would feel less cluttery.
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Old 07-18-2017, 07:16 AM   #2
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good info and Kenny G has a video about doing this with two compressors on a single track that is a good example of how to do it
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Old 07-18-2017, 10:20 PM   #3
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Another obvious Use of "Pin Routing" is
- doing a true stereo reverb by ReaVerb
- using multiple chains of VSTis and following plugin chains in a single track e.g. for Live usage empowered by SWS LiveConfigs.

-Michael
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Old 07-19-2017, 02:58 AM   #4
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Quote:
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good info and Kenny G has a video about doing this with two compressors on a single track that is a good example of how to do it
I figured that guy had this covered already but couldn't find the video.He's a hell of an educator though, I've learned so much useful stuff from his videos. Could you post the link to the video you had in mind? I'd really like to see it
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Old 07-23-2017, 02:53 AM   #5
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Does latency calculation work correctly when running FX in parallel on the same track?
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Old 07-25-2017, 07:11 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dzamija View Post
I figured that guy had this covered already but couldn't find the video.He's a hell of an educator though, I've learned so much useful stuff from his videos. Could you post the link to the video you had in mind? I'd really like to see it
try this one:

https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php#Am43xUCCPEM
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Old 07-25-2017, 07:19 AM   #7
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Quote:
Does latency calculation work correctly when running FX in parallel on the same track?
Not sure about that atmo-but I did notice some time ago any item fx do not show in the performance/resources monitor at all!
Nothing there....????
Also- if you have track fx-this will show in the performance monitor and if you 'disable track fx' the pdc still shows--- but!- if you actually bypass the plugin itself-the pdc disappears.
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Old 07-25-2017, 07:22 AM   #8
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Does latency calculation work correctly when running FX in parallel on the same track?
I do not think so. I added 3 different limiters, in series, and got a PDC of 768. I then changed the pin connections so that 2 were in series and the third was parallel to those two. The reported PDC was still 768.
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Old 07-25-2017, 09:04 AM   #9
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I do not think so. I added 3 different limiters, in series, and got a PDC of 768. I then changed the pin connections so that 2 were in series and the third was parallel to those two. The reported PDC was still 768.
But was the PDC on each? A limiter doesn't actually need PDC unless it's doing lookahead, so it's possible that the one you put parallel just wasn't ever contributing to begin with. JS plugs can specify compensation for just a set of channels, and I'd imagine VST et al do the same. I've never had problems with this.
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Old 07-25-2017, 09:22 AM   #10
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Yes, I had checked that. For info, the PDCs were 22, 163 and 171. Reaper round each up to 256 samples, giving a total of 768.
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Old 07-25-2017, 09:35 AM   #11
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Quote:
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Yes, I had checked that. For info, the PDCs were 22, 163 and 171. Reaper round each up to 256 samples, giving a total of 768.
Did you actually test the delay? Like Record multichannel output (latency compensated) and see what happens? I suspect the PDC reading is kind of "naive" to parallel processing. It's just adding them all up, but they are actually allocated to different channels as appropriate. I'm going to check it now!

Edit
Yes, having tested it, I have proven to my own satisfaction that it just plain works. I've never heard any problem, and recording output shows that they line up perfectly. The FX window does show the "total" PDC as though they were all in series, but that's apparently a glitch in the display itself and does not affect the processing side of things.
/Edit


minor point - I'm pretty sure Reaper rounds to buffer blocks, so that will depend on your interface settings.

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Old 07-25-2017, 10:06 AM   #12
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Sorry, this post was meant for another thread. Text deleted.

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Old 07-25-2017, 10:14 AM   #13
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Well, I'm not sure what I've proved, but ... the two streams did differ in timing:



The track named 193 had been through 2 plug-ins with a total latency of 193 samples; the track named 163 had been through the third plug-in (the one in parallel) with a latency of 163.

My rough measurements indicate that the clip on '193' is 428 samples early and the clip on '163' is 553 samples early.
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Old 07-25-2017, 11:05 AM   #14
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One of us did something different or else my buffers (currently at 512) just happened to line up with the beat. You did choose (latency compensated)?

Yours is two separate tracks. Don't know if that should make a difference. I had three instances of ReaComp on one track. All set to 250ms lookahead. One output to 3/4 and then two more on 1/2. I'd think if they were off, they'd be WAY off, but they lined up exactly to the sample.
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Old 07-25-2017, 11:51 AM   #15
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Yes, having tested it, I have proven to my own satisfaction that it just plain works.
i just tested (quickly) with TDR Limiter 6 and ReaComp in parallel and it works fine.
maybe it has to do only with certain plug ins/ developers ?
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Old 07-25-2017, 01:50 PM   #16
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The automatic plugin latency correction can be switched off in Reaper (e.g. to allow for circular routing).

-Michael
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